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More issues arise with Tower’s election process

TOWER— Problems with the election process appeared again in Tower, on Tuesday, even as efforts to address more extensive problems during the August primary appear to have run aground.

On Tuesday, doors to the Tower Civic Center were locked for at least some of the time during the ballot-counting procedure, which is a violation of state ballot-counting rules, which require that the public have access to the polling place at all times during vote counting.

In addition, election officials failed to make a printout of the election results available to the public, despite a request from this reporter. The Secretary of State’s official election judge guide states that judges are supposed to “post one of the results tapes in the polling place for public viewing.”

When informed of that requirement, City Clerk-Treasurer Linda Keith said that their voting machine did not print a public tape and that none have been made available in the past. She did provide city council race results when requested to do so.

As a result of numerous errors during the August primary, county election officials required election officials in Tower to undergo retraining in election procedures in September. The city council did ultimately vote to reprimand Keith last month and had directed her to prepare a written request to the county for a special audit of the city’s election process following Tuesday’s election. But county elections supervisor Phil Chapman told the Timberjay that the county has yet to receive such a request. Without a formal request, he indicated the county likely won’t undertake any special review of Tower’s election results.